Frame problems between Xiaomi and Vegas (was Make a fast pan look less jittery)

[porina]

Over a week ago I was travelling and took some random videos using my phones. There's one clip I really want to use but it looks like a stuttery mess. It was recorded at 30fps. If I play back the original file it looks between bad to ok. If I look at the edit it seems worse although I don't get why, since the project is also at 30fps.

 

Upon pausing the video, the reason for the problem was clear. Shutter was incredibly short so there wasn't any motion blur. I probably also panned too fast which doesn't help. Any suggestions at this point? Going back to retake the shot is not an option.

 

I'm using Vegas 16 as my editor, and I'm not sure any of the built in filters are of use here. 

 

I think I bought as part of humble Bundle in the distant past some software that was used to interpolate video files for smooth panning - possibly what I need although I'm not looking for frame rate adjustment, I could work through it. I have no idea what it was called and I'm looking for it now in the hopes it might be of use.

 

Any other ideas?

[Needfuldoer]

Try adding some horizontal motion blur in post to disguise the pan.

 

Topaz Video AI can work some magic to add frames to existing video, but that would just give you a smoother, not-blurry camera move.

[porina]

I found Vegas has a motion blur feature built in. I'm testing it out now.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/video-effects/how-to-add-motion-blur-to-videos/

 

8 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Try adding some horizontal motion blur in post to disguise the pan.

I didn't see motion blur as an option before I posted. I was debating if some general horizontal blur would work.

[Needfuldoer]

18 minutes ago, porina said:

I didn't see motion blur as an option before I posted. I was debating if some general horizontal blur would work.

How long is the shot? If it's quick, it's pretty easy to fool the eye.

[porina]

12 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

How long is the shot? If it's quick, it's pretty easy to fool the eye.

About 22 seconds, but I don't think that is my main problem now.

 

 

I found a clue as to why it looks worse in editor/export than original. If I can get it to original I'd tolerate it as good enough.

 

If I play the original back frame by frame outside of the editor, I get the expected update every frame. If I view it in editor, a lot of the time it only updates every 2 frames. In effect I'm getting 15fps. I double checked the source file is reported as 30fps, same as the project. I used two phones to record video. It looks like all clips from a Xiaomi are affected, and all clips from a Pixel are not. Again, both recorded at 30fps.

 

What is going on??? I tried allowing (time) resampling, which did nothing. Is there some weird thing going on with the timing in the Xiaomi files that causes Vegas to drop frames? Will have to research this a bit more. I could try using another tool to convert the Xiaomi files to an intermediate format and see if that is a workaround.

 

Edit: I tried setting the project to 29.97fps, no change. I tried 60fps, no change (gaps are now 4 frames instead of 2).

[porina]

I used Handbrake to resave the file as fixed 30fps and it works fine in Vegas now. Seems Handbrake did something to the colour though, as its output has like a grey cast but I eyeballed a quick manual contrast correction so I can move on.

 

I can only assume Vegas and whatever the Xiaomi did with the file didn't agree with each other. If I compared the original file with Handbrake output, sometimes the original was 1 frame ahead. I guess I'll avoid taking video with the Xiaomi going ahead, and if I really have to I have a workaround with Handbrake.

 

With the original file quality now in place with the editor I'm considering this one closed.